


How To Immobilize A Boxman

by blunderbuss



Category: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
Genre: Domestic Bliss, M/M, Post Beach Trip Nap, Retractable Claws, Venomous Bullies Boxman Thottily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-05 05:18:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19041922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blunderbuss/pseuds/blunderbuss
Summary: Boxman gets a gnarly sunburn, so Venomous whips up (and applies) a cure.





	How To Immobilize A Boxman

**Author's Note:**

> Boxman and Venomous: *grab each other by the boob*

“Okay,” breathed Venomous as he pushed himself through the bedroom door. His hands were full of a square, tin container and a light pink towel. “I’ve got your cure right here.”

Oh no - he’d changed into the soft gray T-shirt with the low V-neck and dark gray tights: the yoga outfit. Not the yoga outfit. Why the yoga outfit…

Boxman had been left on their bed, with Venomous’s phone playing his classical music on the bedside table at low volume. The comforter had been removed to leave only their pillows and another, olive green towel that Boxman was spread out on, belly up, with arms and legs outstretched in a position like a starfish. 

He was still in the bottom half of the outfit he’d worn to the beach, where the family had been about an hour and a half earlier. They had to cut their trip a little short when Boxman had fallen asleep in his beach chair and woken with the worst sunburn he’d had in years. Venomous had been about to scold him for not applying any of the three kinds of sunscreen he’d brought just for the two of them - he had some weird concoction for Fink and her short fur - but Boxman had applied and reapplied. He just burned very easily.

Venomous shut the door behind himself with a bare foot. “This won't look appetizing, but it’ll numb you up right away. You’ll be good as new in no time.”

As soon as they’d arrived back home and he had Boxman carefully transported to the bedroom, Venomous had gone to his laboratory and been there for the last twenty minutes, having promised to create a solution to Boxman’s dilemma. Boxman couldn't remember ever seeing him come out of the lab with anything that wasn’t a little or a lot monstrous, so he really didn’t know what to expect. But anything would be better than feeling like he was still crackling in a big frying pan. He’d take tentacle arms and legs over this any day. A whole tentacle body.

Venomous hastily padded to the side of the bed and put the folded towel beside Boxman, and the small tin tub on top of that. He straightened, put his hands on his hips, and waited for Boxman to get a look at the goop within the tub - as good a look as he could get without moving his head. It was smooth, reminding Boxman of sour cream, but a pale shade of green. Yep… That’s not appetizing.

“Yeuck,” Boxman concluded.

“Yeah, thought you’d say that.” Venomous carefully sat on the bed, bringing one knee up with him. He adjusted the tub and towel for optimal reach. “But just wait. I even took the liberty of adding some of my own personal formula to help keep the peeling to a minimum.” 

“Your- huh, what? For sunburns?”

“Uh, no,” said Venomous, looking down at the goop, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll explain later. Just relax…” He gave Boxman a warm smile and then got to work, dipping the fingers of one hand in the goo. 

He had the same contented, professional air about him that he got whenever he worked in his lab. It was a little funny to see him like this in the yoga outfit rather than a lab coat. And hot. That freaking outfit leaves almost nothing to the imagination. He'd been in tight swim trunks earlier that day; shouldn't Boxman be a little desensitized? Guess not. 

Boxman followed Venomous’s hand with this eyes as he reached over to Boxman’s farthest (human) arm, while holding the goop tub steady on the bed with his other hand. “Incoming,” said Venomous quietly.

Boxman yelped at the explosion of sensation where it touched his baked skin. After the quick shock of sunburn pain, the goo felt like ice before fading into something a little more tolerable. Next came something like the feeling of having a limb fall asleep. But as promised, the sensation settled into a cool, slightly tingling numbness in under two seconds. 

Venomous looked from Boxman’s arm to his face and back again, gauging his reaction. “Shh, deep breath…” he soothed, very easily adopting a doctorly bedside manner. Ah jeez, that’s all Boxman needed. He took one short breath and held it.

Venomous began to very slowly smooth a layer up Boxman’s forearm. The numbing was nothing short of an extreme relief, and the initial shock of sting and freeze wasn’t so bad, now that Boxman had a better understanding of what to expect. It barely even had a smell; just slightly sweet and a little bit chemical. Unfortunately, the bombardment of all these sensations combined with Venomous in the snug, low V-neck and a LOT of the line of his pecs right there and the _tights_ and his hand very slowly going up his arm and him saying and doing things that made Boxman feel like he was his patient had him nearly short-circuiting, very possibly in a literal sense.

“What do you think? Is it doing the trick?” asked Venomous with all the personableness of a friendly family doctor. Boxman elected to look up at the ceiling. Even if he wasn’t almost entirely immobile, he didn’t think he’d be able to move with all this happening. 

“Yep!” went Boxman in a high pitch.

Venomous finally finished applying a coating on his forearm and hand. Boxman actually did relax a little as the numbing totally replaced any sting on the skin there. He closed his eyes and sighed loudly. “Holy moley…”

“Mmm- _hm!”_ said Venomous, victoriously, “What did I tell you? Now, just keep breathing.”

It wasn’t like Boxman couldn’t just tell Venomous, ‘Hey this is hot and I can’t believe you got in the yoga outfit to do this,’ but he was a little concerned about what Venomous would do. Not that he’d have any problem with it - in fact, Boxman was worried he’d have the opposite reaction. 

“Here comes round two,” warned Venomous just before Boxman felt the now familiar prickle-then-freeze-then-tingle in the middle of his stomach. Venomous applied this coat in slow circles, starting on Boxman’s right side. “You doing okay?”

Boxman nodded several times, quickly. “Mhm!” He was still looking up at the ceiling, nearly unblinking.

“What’s that face?” Venomous laughed.

Ah, crap. “What face!” Boxman laughed nervously, “There’s no face!”

Unable to sit up, Boxman awkwardly looked down his own chest at Venomous just in time to watch it all dawn on him, finally.

Venomous softened at the edges, raising his eyebrows and twisting a little more at the hips to get a better look at Boxman. He tilted his chin down and flashed his fangs in a small version of the grin that always made Boxman’s stomach contort and sent a wave of hot pins and needles down from his head to his feet, even under the cooling numbness of the goop. Adios family doctor.

“Something the matter?”

He hadn’t stopped rubbing slow circles on Boxman’s stomach, but they were slower now. Boxman returned his unblinking gaze to the ceiling and he shook his headwidely, rolling it back and forth on the pillow.

Venomous chuckled and Boxman’s stomach flipped again. “Well, that’s good. There’s sure not a whole lot we could do while you’re in this state, huh?”

Boxman’s fingers/claws twitched and his toes curled a little, and the sting of it made him make a one-syllable noise. He then hummed one long, lilting note and shut his eyes tight. “Just how long is this stuff gonna take!?” he asked in utter exasperation.

Venomous sighed in thought, rubbing circles of the goop over the last expanse of Boxman’s rotund stomach. “So long as I haven’t lost my touch, you should be back to your old self in a few hours.” Boxman heard him stick his hand back in the tub.

“Wow, really?” Dang!

He looked back down at Venomous, which was a mistake. He was biting his lower lip, smiling, and kept eye contact as he moved his hand up to Boxman’s chest and rolled it over his pec. Boxman’s eyes shot back up. As soon as he knew the goop had done it’s numbing work, Venomous gave him a squeeze. Boxman made a noise between a squawk and a gurgle. 

Venomous snickered. “Alright, no more, too mean. Not to mention, we’ve still got to do your legs…”

Boxman whined another sustained, high note. Venomous slid the goo over Boxman’s other pec and chuckled again as Boxman’s whine turned back into a louder and equally pathetic hum.

After a little less time spent on the second pec than the first, Venomous whisked his hand away. Most of Boxman’s upper half was now tingling strangely. He hard time telling how much of it was from the goo and how much was from Venomous.

“Alright, you made it,” Venomous announced. With his clean hand, he gave the feathers of Boxman’s un-gooped arm a few affectionate strokes. “Now… The lower half.”

 _“DON'T SAY IT LIKE THAT!”_ pleaded Boxman.

Venomous snickered again and leaned in to give the human skin just beneath the metal plate of Boxman’s left cheek a quick kiss. He looked Boxman in the eye and gave him a somewhat sincere look of sympathy, with Boxman returning it with as much of a scowl he could manage while blushing, before he disappeared out of Boxman’s vision again. Boxman felt him scoot himself and the tub a little farther down the bed, leaving Boxman to simmer.

“This’ll be quick, I promise…” Venomous said, but didn’t sound entirely serious. Venomous had blanched at Boxman’s choice of beachwear pants - sweatpants - but if Boxman was grateful for one thing right now, it was that his thighs had been protected at the VERY least. But crap, just the thought of it…

Boxman kept his eyes screwed shut and concentrated as hard as possible on the quiet music as Venomous made, as promised, quick work of his first calf and foot. “Home stretch…” said Venomous, and by the time he started on the second leg, Boxman had managed to relax enough that he could even find it a little soothing. 

Until Venomous asked lowly, "What're you thinking about?"

Boxman, now scowling, very pointedly announced: _"Nothing."_  

Venomous giggled as he finished applying a coat of goop to his second foot. Boxman was now almost fully numbed, which was still strange but a million times better than the relentless stinging. He sighed again, letting go a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

Boxman felt Venomous’s weight shifting on the bed and cracked an eye open to watch him carefully set the goop vat on the floor, clean his hand with the towel, set it down next to the tub, and slink up the bed to lie on his side beside Boxman.

“Now, was that so bad?” he asked. His arm was crooked at his waist, his hand dangling, while the other propped up his head, still looking plenty mischievous.

“No…” admitted Boxman, “I mean yes, but no…”

“Hmm,” hummed Venomous. They looked at each other for a moment. “Want me to blow you?”

“HUH?” Boxman’s entire body jerked, which was enough motion to resurrect some of the sting beneath the goop’s numbing, and brought a cacophony of noises out of Boxman. Venomous steadied him with a hand to his unburnt shoulder and turned his head to laugh into the mattress.

Once the sting wore off enough for him to freeze as though he was caught in headlights, Boxman could do nothing but watch in wide-eyed terror as Venomous raised himself back onto his side, gave Boxman the most mischievous look yet, and blew air from between his lips onto Boxman’s stomach.

It made Boxman shiver instantly and jump a little in surprise, but it cooled the goop and eased the tingling. Boxman grumbled even as he relaxed into the mattress, despite himself, which made Venomous snicker again. Boxman watched as Venomous adjusted himself to rest his weight on his arms, folded at the elbows in front of him, to be able to reach the other side of Boxman’s stomach with his breath. The playfulness gradually faded in his expression until he looked only quietly concentrated and serene, genuinely committed to doing this for Boxman.

Boxman was very suddenly struck with an emotion he'd recently become familiar with, but it still took him by surprise every time. It began as a shock of feeling in the center of his chest and bloomed up into his throat. It was something like sadness and it very nearly brought him to tears, but it was warm too.

Venomous had done all this, for him.

Lately, Boxman was too busy living in the moment, in his incredible present, and barreling forward at top speed for things to hit him all at once like this, at least not very often. Looking down at Venomous breathing cool, gentle air onto his sunburnt body, Boxman thought the same words he’d thought at least once a day just about every day he was with Venomous, admittedly since the day he met the man.

Do you wanna get married?

Venomous was in the middle of inhaling another breath and stopped, held it, and looked at Boxman. Oh jeez whoops. Did that come out of his mouth?

Several expressions crossed Venomous’s face. He blinked rapidly a few times, then looked like he was about to laugh, then hung his head and did laugh. When he raised his head again his eyes were closed, but he was smiling.

“Boxman, I am not going to let you ask me that right now." He opened his eyes. "Let’s at least wait until you’re not bedridden. Then you can do that again, and you can do it properly.”

“Uuh. Okay…!”

… WELL, IT WASN’T A NO!

But didn't he technically just blow it? Aren’t you supposed to knock it out of the park on the first try? And he had no clue how to do it properly. The only two instances he could think of were while up on a Jumbotron at a sports game or at a ritzy restaurant but Venomous isn’t a sports guy, and HE couldn’t be the one paying at a real fancy restaurant, and that didn’t sound right-

At some point, Venomous had shuffled farther up the bed. He put a hand on Boxman’s cheek and gave the corner of his mouth a long kiss. Boxman’s train of thought fizzled and flatlined.

“Just quit thinking,” Venomous murmured where he’d kissed him, “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

He smoothed Boxman’s hair down against the side of his face and kissed him on the lips. Boxman instinctually tried to lift his arms to do something with them, but only grunted into Venomous’s mouth and twitched when he felt a ripple of pain under the goop’s numbing.

“Whoops, I’m sorry.” Venomous pulled back to look him in the eye. He looked really happy, and kind’ve teary. He sniffed and dabbed at his eye with the back of his wrist.

They looked at each other for another while, Venomous still smoothing his hair. Boxman’s mind was still quietly racing and his heart still pounding, but more than panic, he just felt that same strange, sad warmth. Maybe ‘sad’ wasn’t the right word…

“Why don’t we… take a nap?” said Venomous quietly, voice a little rough.

“We?”

“Mhm.”

Venomous arced over to open the top drawer of the bedside table and sifted through it until he found a hair tie. He sat up and gave his head a little shake before tying his hair back at the base of his neck, closed his eyes as he took a breath, then looked at Boxman. He suddenly laughed again. “Sorry. You’re quite a picture right now.”

Boxman took a second to process what he’d said, then found it in himself to harrumph.

Venomous hummed a laugh and curled himself up again at Boxman’s side. They looked at each other as much as Boxman could turn his head to look at him. “You’ll feel like a new man soon, I promise,” said Venomous, “Poor thing.”

He ran the knuckles of his fore- and middle fingers up and down the side of Boxman’s face. Boxman tried to lean toward him but only jerked a little and grunted again. He scoffed at himself, fully fed up with all this. “Could you just kiss me again please?”

Venomous made a noise of affectionate pity and obliged. This one went on little longer and deeper than the last one in a slow, sleepy way. Venomous extracted his nails a little and ran them lightly down Boxman’s cheek.

Boxman watched as Venomous pulled back, eyes closed, and let his head drop heavily on the pillow. He moved his hand to the part of Boxman’s chest that wasn’t coated in goop and flexed his fingers a little against his skin, claws still protruding.

“Really can’t wait for you to be mobile again,” Venomous said, conversationally.

Boxman clenched his eyes shut and made a noise like a sob. “Me either…” he lilted.

Venomous giggled and arranged his arm so he could keep it on Boxman’s chest without infringing on the goop. He closed his eyes and absently played with the little bit of hair there. 

Boxman watched his face for a while until his eyelids drooped closed. After a while, the soft music, the sound of their quiet breathing, and finally, his rushing thoughts faded away into silence in his mind, and they slept. 

**Author's Note:**

> i only write a fic once every 3 years sldjfljkdf so here's where i usually am! twitter.com/nyolycule  
> stuvision.tumblr.com


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